SilverStone Nightjar ST50NF 500W Fanless Power Supply Review

Introduction and Features

SilverStone was one of the first PC power supply manufacturers to design and market a fanless power supply for silent operation. While many of their competitor’s fanless products have come and gone, SilverStone continues to build on their reputation and later last year released the SST-ST50NF 500W fanless power supply, which is the latest addition to the Nightjar series. We are a little late to the party in reviewing the ST50NF but after talking with the good folks at SilverStone it appears the wait was worth it as they have continued to tweak the design in recent months to improve AC ripple suppression on the DC outputs.

Here is what SilverStone has to say about the Nightjar 500W fanless power supply: The fanless Nightjar series power supplies are long favorites for professionals and enthusiasts alike that require noiseless power solution with no moving parts. With increasing power demands required from modern computers, SilverStone engineers have once again created another fanless power supply with leading output level in ST50NF. With 500W of continuous rating, near 80Plus Silver efficiency, ±3% voltage regulation, single +12V rail, multiple PCI-E connectors, and full host of safety features, the ST50NF is a great choice for mission-critical systems that need to operate in noiseless or dusty environments.

Editor’s Note: Fanless PC power supplies occupy a niche market and are targeted towards users who want a silent power supply for use in noise-sensitive areas or who need a power supply that can survive in a dusty/dirty environment that might choke and kill a conventional fan cooled PSU. Fanless power supplies rely on convection cooling and still require airflow in and around the power supply chassis to carry away the waste heat. So while the power supply itself may not have a fan, the computer enclosure must still have some means of creating airflow to keep the CPU, GPU and PSU cool. The last thing you want to do is put a fanless PSU in a closed enclosure without any fans or airflow!

Establishing an accurate load is critical to testing and evaluating a PC power supply. PCPerspective’s power supply test bench can place a precise 2,000 watt DC load on the PSU under test. Each power supply is tested under controlled, real-world conditions up to its maximum rated load (at 40ºC), using both 115 VAC and 240 VAC line voltage. Our current suite of tests includes:

I think you were trying to make the following point??:
Most power supplies do not have the beefy heat sinks this fanless model has. The application of water blocks etc. would normally be a complete pain, but here we have big, flat chunks of metal to play with, making it bunches of easier.

Yes, you "could" but why even go that route... If you don't need fanless then just get a good PSU with a quiet fan.

To watercool the ST50NF, you could cut sections of copper tubing and press them into the PSU's large finned heatsink. Connect the tubes in parallel and add them into your PC's watercooling loop. Or take a couple old CPU/GPU waterblocks and bolt onto the PSU's heatsink (after drilling and tapping).